In solid state lighting applications, such as decorative indoor and outdoor illumination for buildings or cars, decorative effects are generated by using large amounts of small light sources to illuminate relatively large areas. Surprising effects can be obtained by controlling and especially varying the luminescence of individual light sources in time. For independent control of multiple electrical loads, such as light sources, several solutions are known in the art. A simple solution is to provide separate wiring to each load to be controlled. This solution has the disadvantage that it is complex and inconvenient to apply in the field of solid state lighting applications, since the number of wires grows proportionally with the amount of loads, i.e. light sources. Another solution is to add logic that enables addressing each individual load. This solution has the disadvantage of being very expensive, since the amount of logic needed is proportional with the amount of loads as well.
Furthermore it is known, for example from U.S. Pat. No. 6,628,273 to address display elements by taking propagation delays of electrical signals in conductors into account. This method has the disadvantage that its use is restricted to nanosecond time ranges, which are too small for lighting applications.